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All the way home, James thinks to himself: It is not too late. It is not too late. With each mile marker, he repeats it until he is back in Middlewood, the college and then the lake whipping by.
回家的路上，詹姆斯一直在想：现在还为时不晚。现在还为时不晚。每走一英里，他都要重复一遍，直到他回到米德尔伍德，回到学院，然后再回到湖面。
When at last he pulls into their driveway, the garage door is open, and Marilyn's car nowhere in sight. Each breath sways him, no matter how hard he tries to keep upright.
当他终于把车开进他们家的车道时，车库的门开了，玛丽琳的车却不见了踪影。无论他多么努力挺直身子，每一次呼吸都会使他摇摆。
All these years he has remembered only: She ran away. He has taken this for granted: She came back. And: She stayed. As he reaches for the front doorknob, his legs wobble.
这么多年来，他只记得，她逃跑了。他认为这是理所当然的，她回来了，并且留了下来。当他伸手去拿前门把手时，他的腿颤抖着。
It is not too late, he assures himself, but inside, he quavers. He cannot blame her if she has gone away again, this time for good.
现在还为时不晚，他向自己保证，但内心却在犹豫。如果她又走了，这次是永远走了，他也不能怪她。
In the front hall, a heavy silence greets him, like that of a funeral. Then he steps into the living room and sees a small figure huddled on the floor.
在前厅里，迎接他的是一种沉重的寂静，就像葬礼一样。然后他走进客厅，看到一个小身影蜷缩在地板上。
Hannah curled in a ball, hugging herself with both arms. Eyes a watery red.
汉娜蜷成一团，双臂抱住自己。眼睛泛着水红色。
He remembers suddenly a long-ago afternoon, two motherless children on a cold doorstep.
他突然想起很久以前的一个下午，两个没有母亲的孩子站在冰冷的门阶上。
"Hannah?" he whispers, even as he feels himself collapsing, like an old building grown too weak to stand. His bag drops from his fingers to the floor.
“汉娜？”他低声说道，尽管他觉得自己快要晕倒了，就像一座老旧的建筑，虚弱得无法站立。他的包从他的手指间滑落到地板上。
It's as if he's breathing through a straw. "Where's your mother?" Hannah looks up. "Upstairs. Sleeping."
他好像在用吸管呼吸。“你妈妈在什么地方？”汉娜抬起头说，“在楼上睡觉。”
Then—and this is what gives James his breath again—"I told her you would come home." Not smugly, not triumphantly. Just a fact, round and simple as a bead.
然后，这又让詹姆斯喘了口。“我告诉她你会回家的。”不是沾沾自喜，也不是洋洋得意。只是一个事实，圆圆的，像珠子一样简单。
James sinks to the carpet beside his small daughter, silenced by gratitude, and Hannah considers whether to say more.
詹姆斯在小女儿身边坐下，感激之情使他沉默了下来，汉娜考虑是否要再说些什么。
For there is more, much more: how she and her mother had curled up together on Lydia's bed and cried and cried all afternoon, holding each other so close that their tears mixed, until her mother had fallen asleep.
因为还有更多的事：她和母亲怎样蜷缩在莉迪亚的床上，哭了整整一个下午，他们紧紧抱在一起，泪水混合在一起，直到母亲睡着了。
And how, half an hour ago, her brother had arrived home in a police car, rumpled and groggy and stinking to high heaven but strangely serene, and had gone straight up to his room and into bed.
半小时前，哥哥坐警车回家，全身皱巴巴，昏昏沉沉，臭气熏天，但出奇地平静，他径直走进自己的房间，上了床。
Hannah, peeking from behind the curtain, had seen Officer Fiske at the wheel, and late that night, Marilyn's car will quietly reappear in the driveway, washed, keys set neatly on the driver's seat. It can wait, she decides.
汉娜从窗帘后面偷看，看见菲斯克警官开着车，那天深夜，玛丽琳的车将静静地重新出现在车道上，洗干净，钥匙整齐地放在驾驶员的座位上。她决定先等等再说。
She is used to keeping people's secrets, and there is something more pressing to tell her father.
她习惯于保守别人的秘密，有更要紧的事要告诉父亲。
She tugs at his arm, pointing upward, and James is surprised by how small her hands are, and how strong. "Look."
她向上拽着他的胳膊，詹姆斯惊讶地发现她的手这么小，这么强壮。“看。”
At first, so overcome with relief, so accustomed to ignoring his youngest, he sees nothing.
起初，他如释重负，习惯于忽视他最小的孩子，什么也看不见。
It is not too late, he thinks, glancing up at the ceiling, clean and bright as a new sheet of paper in the late-afternoon sun. Not yet the end.
他抬头瞥了一眼天花板，心想现在还不算太晚，它干净而明亮，就像傍晚阳光下的一张新纸。还没有结束。
"Look," Hannah insists again, tipping his head with a peremptory hand.
“瞧，”汉娜又坚持说，用一只专横的手一歪他的头。
She has never dared to be so bossy, and James, startled, looks carefully and sees it at last:
她从来不敢这么专横跋扈，詹姆斯吓了一跳，仔细看了看，终于明白了：
